Critiquing the State-centric and legalistic approach to implementing human rights, this book illustrates the efficacy of relying upon social institutions.

Having articulated numerous human rights norms and standards in international treaties, the pressing challenge today is their realisation in States' parties around the world. Domestic implementation has proven a difficult task for national authorities as well as international supervisory bodies. This book examines the traditional State-centric and legalistic approach to implementation, critiquing its limited efficacy in practice and failure to connect with local cultures. The book therefore explores the permissibility of other measures of implementation, and advocates more culturally sensitive approaches involving social institutions. Through an interdisciplinary case study of Islam in Indonesia, the book demonstrates the power of social institutions like religion to promote rights compliant positions and behaviours. Like the preamble of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the book reiterates the role not just of the State but indeed 'every organ of society' in realising rights.

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) – human rights commissions and ombudsmen – have gained recognition as a possible missing link in the transmission and implementation of international human rights norms at the domestic level. They are also increasingly accepted as important participants in global and regional forums where international norms are produced. By collecting innovative work from experts spanning international law, political science, sociology and human rights practice, this book critically examines the significance of this relatively new class of organizations. It focuses, in particular, on the prospects of these institutions to effectuate state compliance and social change. Consideration is given to the role of NHRIs in delegitimizing – though sometimes legitimizing – governments' poor human rights records and in mobilizing – though sometimes demobilizing – civil society actors. The volume underscores the broader implications of such cross-cutting research for scholarship and practice in the fields of human rights and global affairs in general.

At a time when human rights are coming under increasing pressure, in-depth knowledge and understanding of their foundations, conceptual underpinnings and current practice remain crucial. The second edition of Walter Kalin and Jorg Kunzli's authoritative book provides a concise but comprehensive legal analysis of international human rights protection at the global and regional levels. It shows that human rights are real rights creating legal entitlements for those who are protected by them and imposing legal obligations on those bound by them. Based, in particular, on a wide-ranging analysis of international case-law, the book focuses on the sources and scope of application of human rights and a discussion of their substantive guarantees. Further chapters describe the different mechanisms to monitor the implementation of human rights obligations, ranging from the regional human rights courts in Africa, the Americas and Europe and the UN treaty bodies to the international criminal tribunals, the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council. The book is based on an understanding of human rights as legal concepts that address basic human needs and vulnerabilities, and highlights the indivisibility of civil and political rights on the one and economic, social and cultural rights on the other hand. It also highlights the convergence of international human rights and international humanitarian law and the interlinkages with international criminal law as well as general international law, in particular the law of state responsibility.

The international human rights system remains as dynamic as ever. If at the end of the last century there was a sense that the normative and institutional development of the system had been completed and that the emphasis should shift to issues of implementation, nothing of the sort occurred. Even over the last few years significant changes happened, as this book amply demonstrates. We hope that this Manual makes a contribution to the development of International Human Rights Law and is of interest for those working in the field of promotion and protection of human rights. The book is the result of a joint project under the auspices of HumanitarianNet, a Thematic Network led by the University of Deusto, and the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC, Venice).

International Human Rights: Problems of Law, Policy, and Practice, Seventh Edition by Hurst Hannum, S. James Anaya, Dinah Shelton, and Rosa Celorio is a student-friendly coursebook that surveys the foundational features and diverse components of the international human rights system, while highlighting human rights issues of pressing concern, including racial discrimination, violence against women, the struggles of indigenous peoples, armed conflicts, lack of access to healthcare and other basic necessities, environmental degradation, and climate change, among others. This coursebook introduces students to the established and developing international law on human rights. Its pages navigate a wide range of substantive norms; procedural rules; and national, regional, and global institutions whose mandate is to promote and monitor compliance with internationally-recognized human rights. The book discusses a range of contemporary human rights challenges, including racial discrimination; violence against women; the struggles of indigenous peoples; armed conflict; threats to free speech, social protest, the defense of human rights; lack of access to health care, and other basic necessities; and environmental degradation and climate change, among others. This book is artfully organized around the foundational features and diverse components of the international human rights system at both the global and regional levels. Distinct problems related to human rights are introduced to illustrate the real issues that face human rights lawyers and how those issues might be addressed through international (and domestic) processes involving internationally-recognized human rights norms. Balancing practical considerations and theory, this outstanding authorship team delivers a comprehensive text that examines historical underpinnings and contemporary considerations related to human rights efforts across the globe. New to the Seventh Edition: New or updated examination of a range of human rights issues, including racial discrimination and police violence; discrimination and violence against women and LGBTI persons; threats to indigenous peoples; undermining of rights of political participation; the human rights impacts of environmental degradation and climate change; human rights in the digital space; among others. Discussion of the formidable impacts on international law and human rights of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that began in early 2022. Exposition of new human rights treaties, declarations, and decisions of judicial and other human rights bodies. Discussion of new developments regarding human rights institutions and international procedures to advance human rights. Updates on United States case law on the judicial enforcement of international human rights norms. This edition of the book is substantially reduced in volume from prior editions, such that it is better designed for use in a one-semester, three-hour course or seminar at the law school or university law. Professors and students will benefit from: Emphasis on practical issues that influence the application, implementation, and development of human rights law. Problem-oriented focus with the goal to motivate students to think about concrete issues and the application of human rights law to the real world. Discussion of current issues in human rights today. Discussion of not only global but also regional treaties, mechanisms, institutions, and procedures related to human rights. Comprehensive coverage that highlights substantive discussion of human rights problems around the world. Presentations of differing views on the theory and practice of human rights. Discussion of the theoretical foundations of human rights, cultural relativism, and sovereignty. Examination of historical developments in human rights as well as modern issues and conflicts. Thoroughly updated text that includes new documents and jurisprudence, as well as recent scholarship. Exposition of the interrelationship between human rights and international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Updated examination of the domestic enforcement of international human rights law.

The concept of global justice makes visible how we citizens of affluent countries are potentially implicated in the horrors so many must endure in the so-called less developed countries. Distinct conceptions of global justice differ in their specific criteria of global justice. However, they agree that the touchstone is how well our global institutional order is doing, compared to its feasible alternatives, in regard to the fundamental human interests that matter from a moral point of view. We are responsible for global regimes such as the global trading system and the rules governing military interventions. These institutional arrangements affect human beings worldwide, for instance by shaping the options and incentives of governments and corporations. Alternative paths of globalization would have differed in how much violence, oppression, and extreme poverty they engender. And global institutional reforms could greatly enhance human rights fullfillment in the future. The importance of this global justice approach reaches well beyond philosophy. It enables ordinary citizens to understand their options and responsibility for global institutional factors, and it challenges social scientists to address the causes of poverty and hunger that act across borders. The present volume addresses four main topics regarding global justice: The normative grounds for claims regarding the global institutional order, the substantive normative principles for a legitimate global order, the roles of legal human rights standards, and some institutional arrangements that may make the present world order less unjust. All royalties from this book have been assigned to Oxfam.